


These Kids Are Fast As Lightning

by starandrea



Series: Dreams [3]
Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Gen, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 16:52:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11212233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starandrea/pseuds/starandrea
Summary: Jason thinks he might be psychic, and Billy thinks it's because of his Power Coin.  When they text the others, the rest of the team gets distracted by why Billy and Jason are hanging out together at dinner time.  Billy's mom is sympathetic and possibly secretly gleeful.





	These Kids Are Fast As Lightning

They had to eat early when Jason stayed for dinner.  Billy told his mom he'd "fixed" Jason's tracking anklet to register his home address at 7:00 no matter where he was, but she said that wasn't the point.  She also said that Jason helped enough in the kitchen to be worth driving home a couple of times a week.  Billy assumed this wasn't true, since Jason barely helped at all and his mom usually said guests didn't have to do anything but show up and be respectful.

Jason showed up, and he was relatively respectful when Billy's mom was watching, so they ate dinner early twice a week and drove him home afterwards.

"Say something random," Jason said. He'd stopped by after his errands to ask about the spaceship, and Billy's mom let them talk about it in the kitchen while Jason fixed the leaky faucet in the dish sink. Then she'd kicked them out with orders not to study, which Billy thought was unnecessarily restrictive and possibly a little optimistic given Jason's grades, but it was Friday night and Jason hadn't broken anything in the basement since Tuesday and Billy was halfway through an algorithm upgrade to his spaceship search model.

"Angels don't bowl with penguins," Billy replied. He heard the ball Jason was bouncing off of corners in an effort to make improbable shots pause, slapping into his hand without a preceding crash, which was a statistical probability of only 68% and falling steadily as Jason got more creative.

"What?" Jason asked. "Wait, you come out with a dozen incomprehensibly random things an hour, but when I ask for something random you make it understandable?"

"How can you tell it's random if it's incomprehensible?" Billy countered. "There's a variety of formulas for generating straightforward random associations. Marketing campaigns sometimes use them to attract the attention of potential consumers."

"I guess I should have known there was a formula involved," Jason said, but his tone indicated he was smiling and Billy heard the ball make three bounces before hitting his hand again. He surmised that no response was required.

"Why do you need a random statement?" Billy asked instead, putting Camber’s email on the second screen so he could assemble a cohesive copy of the data as he incorporated it into the upgraded model. "Is this part of a psychic experiment? Because I've conducted several of those, and the difficult part of the data collection is that it's influenced by how you think about it. That's a pun. Get it? It's influenced by how you think about it?"

"A psychic experiment?" Jason's ball didn't bounce again. "Why is that the first thing you thought of? And why are you doing psychic experiments, anyway? Is this recent?"

"It's not the first thing I thought of; the first thing I thought of was marketing and the second thing was politics, neither of which you've mentioned this week, so once I ruled out a secret personality test and idle social interaction, I started guessing based on things I've become interested in due to shared experience.

“Yes, it's recent,” Billy added, in case Jason thought their shared experience was school instead of Zordon’s ship. It was both, of course, but only the latter had prompted him to start running psychic experiments. “Why would our Power Coins only improve our physical abilities? That doesn't make any sense. We show obvious signs of cognitive enhancement as well, so it’s logical to speculate that we might develop unusual mental abilities as a result of our exposure to the Power."

"Is it," Jason said.

"Yes," Billy said patiently. "Plus basic psychic testing is easy and sort of entertaining, so I've been trying it on everyone at school. So far I've only identified three people."

"It's easy?" Jason repeated. The sawhorse he’d been lying on made a screeching sound on the floor as he sat up and swung around at the same time. "How is it easy? What's the test?"

"You just think things at people that they won't be able to resist responding to," Billy said. "It's one of the easiest tests there is. I mean, I guess you have to know your audience, but most people are pretty predictable. Especially given how much time I have to observe them during a regular school day."

"You test for psychic abilities by thinking things at people," Jason said. "Loudly, I assume?"

"I don't know if thoughts can really be loud or soft," Billy said, adding another line of data to the email before he moved it. “Everything inside my head is pretty much the same volume. And if I've heard anything from outside my head, it would be from the inside of someone else's head, right? Except for things I actually hear, which are almost all outside my head, because my ears don't work as well on the inside, although I guess we all hear blood rushing and our heartbeat sometimes. Anyway, I don't think I'm psychic, so maybe I'm not a good judge, but I'm not sure thoughts can be loud."

"Of course they can," Jason said. "Haven't you heard people say someone was thinking so loud they were practically shouting?"

"No," Billy said. "But that sounds more like a hyperbolic simile than an objective description of a psychic event. Just because you can make a reasonable assumption about what someone is thinking, based on their environment and their history, that doesn’t mean you’ve detected it on an extrasensory level.”

He transferred the last of the data and closed the code around it, sending the email to Camber as he added, "Also, I don't like the phrase extrasensory perception because I think it's an oxymoron. Perception is a function of the senses, so if you perceive something, it's because you're using your senses. Perception that comes from outside the senses isn't perception; it's speculation."

The ball bounced, hit Jason's hand, bounced again, hit his hand again. He was lobbing it at the floor, Billy concluded, possibly absent-mindedly, definitely without the earlier concentration he'd put into calculating angles of incidence and reflection. If he’d been thinking about psychic experiments while he was throwing the ball before, and he was thinking about psychic experiments while he was throwing it now, then the single most obvious difference was that now he knew Billy was also thinking about psychic experiments.

"Maybe it doesn't come from outside the senses," Jason said at last. "Maybe it's just a different sense. That's what they call it sometimes, right, a sixth sense? Maybe extra just means, literally, an extra sense."

Billy nodded, checking the satellite link before launching the new and hopefully improved algorithm. "That's an explanation I hadn't considered, and it does make the phrase less ridiculous. Are you interested in participating in a psychic experiment?"

"I don't think it'll work with you," Jason said.

Billy turned away from the monitors to look at Jason. Or at least to look in Jason's direction, confirming the stillness of the ball and the lack of any other informative body language. Not that Billy was great with body language, but he observed and systematically categorized as many identifiable signs as he could, based on repetition and research. As a way of compensating for his inability to read tone and emotional nuance, probably, but he had no way to verify that. Since he'd never been able to do both, he couldn't reliably compare the data available from one to the other.

"Why not?" Billy asked.

"I don't know," Jason said. "What if you're the opposite of psychic? Like, if psychic people read minds, what if you block mind-reading? You contain thoughts instead of, uh, read them?"

"I guess that's possible," Billy said. "It seems more likely that my thought processes just aren't decipherable to the average mindreader. I've taken that into consideration in my own experiments, of course, but I don't have any way to control for it without another tester."

"Well, you've got one," Jason said. "Sign me up for your next psychic experiment."

_ Zordon should have told us about the possibility of psychic enhancement as a result of Power exposure, _ Billy thought, as clearly as he could. Surely if he concentrated on using language, that would overcome any processing differential or other translation failure from his mind to the next. Most of the people he knew spoke English, so it stood to reason that they would be able to understand thoughts expressed in English words.  _ Zordon isn't a practical or specific resource regarding most things. _

And then, because he knew how Jason felt about it:  _ Zordon never tells us anything. _

Jason shook his head. "I'm telling you, man, you must have some sort of psychic shield. It doesn't make you incomprehensible," he added. "It just makes you... quiet."

"The timing of your words is its own coincidence," Billy said, "but more importantly, that's very specific. Do you have a sense of blankness from me where you're accustomed to sensing the thoughts of others?"

Jason took several seconds to consider what turned out to be a one-word response. "Yes," he said.

"For how long?" Billy wanted to know. "Do you think it's related to the Power Coins? Have you talked to any of the others about this? Because they haven't mentioned anything about suddenly developing psychic powers, but neither did you until I specifically asked."

"Two weeks," Jason said. "Since the weekend we crashed on the tracks. I didn't tell anyone. I guess I figured, if it was happening to the others we’d all know, right?"

Billy didn't think “crash” was necessarily the most descriptive word for what had happened, but words didn't have to be precise to be true. “Why?” he said. “It was happening to you and we didn’t know. Unless you think that everyone would be thinking about it, so we’d all hear each other thinking about it, and then we’d all know, which I guess makes a certain amount of sense.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, bouncing the ball off of the floor again. “That’s what I meant.”

“What if we’re developing different psychic abilities?” Billy thought about the ball moving in a different direction, bouncing harder, returning to Jason’s hand from above instead of below. The ball didn’t do anything other than what Jason was making it do, but it had been worth a try.

“You said my thoughts seem contained,” he continued. “Like the opposite of mind-reading. Have anyone else’s thoughts been like that?”

“No,” Jason said, too slowly even when he made allowances for Jason’s naturally less focused way of talking. “But… I mean, I don't really try to read most people’s thoughts. Not that I’m trying to read yours. It’s just--you guys are the people I'm around the most, you know? And it turns out I don't actually want to know what most people think.”

"Really?" Billy said. "It seems like that would be a lot faster. Think how much time you could save conversing with people if you didn't have to wait for them to finish their question."

"Yeah," Jason said. "People only have one question for me, and it's why did I ruin their season. Unless they're my parents, and then it's why did I ruin my life. I don't need to hear that any more or faster than I already do."

"Giving up football is more likely to have a positive impact on your life expectancy than a negative one," Billy said. "Your concussion risk alone has dropped by an order of magnitude."

"So have my chances of getting into college," Jason said.

"Why?" Billy wanted to know. "You're not unintelligent or undisciplined. Now that you're not spending all your time at practice, your grades should improve significantly and your test scores will follow. You probably shouldn't apply for early admission based on your recent academic record, but by spring you should have a series of scholastic achievements that support your acceptance."

"Not that I don't appreciate the vote of confidence," Jason said, "but I'm still spending all my time at practice."

"Well, you have been," Billy agreed. "With Rita gone, I don't expect Zordon will want us to keep training all the time. We'd just get in his way."

"You went hunting for spaceships this afternoon," Jason said.

When nothing more followed, Billy said, "Yes? Everyone said they were fine with it, except for Zack who mentioned he doesn't want to leave the planet."

"That's my point," Jason said. "We didn't train, but everyone still wants to do things together."

"Because we're friends," Billy said. "That's what friends do. You and I already study together; I'm sure the rest of the team would join us if you want more time without sacrificing social obligations. Kim and Trini discussed the potential for study dates this afternoon in the car."

"With each other?" Jason asked. "Didn't see that coming."

"Maybe they haven't been thinking about it when you're around," Billy said.

"Or maybe I can't read minds at all," Jason said, "and it's all just my imagination."

"After everything we've been through in the last couple of weeks," Billy said, "it seems odd that this is the thing you'd pick as most likely to be something you imagined."

It made Jason laugh, which wasn't his intent, but he found he appreciated the reaction anyway.

"Yeah," Jason said. "You're not wrong about that."

"We should ask the others if they've noticed any unusual mental changes," Billy said. "Being able to read minds, not being able to have their mind read, that type of thing. Although I guess they'd have to ask you about the latter."

"No," Jason said. "I mean, yeah, but I already know. None of them are like you."

“So maybe that’s related to the Power Coins too,” Billy said. “What if we’re all enhanced in different ways? That would make sense in terms of the strength of the team: it's better to have a range of skills instead of everyone having the same one. Maybe you’re the mindreader, and everyone else is something different.”

"Like what?" Jason wanted to know. "Like they move things with their mind?"

“Why not?” Billy said. “You can’t honestly tell me that’s less plausible than--well, pretty much anything else we’ve been through recently.”

"Yeah, but it's obvious," Jason said. "Or it would be. I can barely control the mindreading thing. If one of us is trying to throw things around with their mind, and they're only as good at it as I am at mindreading, I guarantee we would have noticed by now."

"What if they're not trying?" Billy countered. "I can render people unconscious by inviting them to head-butt me. But I haven't done it since the first time I realized it was possible. Maybe when someone realizes they can move objects with their mind, their first reaction isn't to do it more."

Jason scoffed. "Have you met us?"

"Yes," Billy said, puzzled.

"I mean," Jason said, "I think we've all proven that that's our first reaction to pretty much everything."

"Not to rendering people unconscious," Billy said. "Or to overheating the tray bar in the cafeteria. You said you broke your sink; did you do that again?"

"Well, not on purpose," Jason said. "But yeah, okay. I see your point. If one of us got object-moving powers and thinks they're going to hurt someone with them, they might not be using them where anyone else could get in the way."

"Telekinesis," Billy said. "That's the ability to move objects with your mind. As compared to telepathy, which sounds like what you're experiencing. I wonder if anyone got teleportation."

"I think we all got teleportation," Jason said. "I still don't know how I ended up at home after the train crash."

"I didn't consider the possibility of shared psychic intervention," Billy said. "I suppose, given our current speculation, that’s as good a hypothesis as any. Have you noticed any other unexplained geographic anomalies?"

"No," Jason said. "So wait, you're willing to consider that everyone on the team has some sort of newfound psychic ability, but you don't have one yourself? Do you have one? I told you mine."

"Technically I guessed yours," Billy said. "And we already discussed the possibility that mine is the ability to prevent mindreading by a foreign entity. Which is pretty useful, so even though it might not be my first choice, I think it will confer some benefit."

"So we both got weird mind powers," Jason said.

"Apparently," Billy agreed. "We should ask the rest of the team if they've also developed powers they haven't told anyone about."

"Yeah," Jason said. “I figured that was coming. I have two requests: one, you do it, and two, don't tell them I'm the only one."

"Well, you're not the only one," Billy said, pulling his phone closer. He typed in,  _ Is anyone else experiencing enhanced psychic abilities since becoming a Power Ranger? _

Billy's mom called them for dinner before everyone had answered, but he saw Zack's reply and Trini's.  _ what,  _ Zack wrote, _ like being able to move stuff with my mind? _

_ yes,  _ was all Trini wrote. 

Because her comment followed Zack's, it was difficult to determine who she was replying to. Billy expected she was aware of that, and further that she didn't try to clarify because she wasn't sure she wanted to talk about it.

Just like Jason, he thought.

“Zack’s the telekinetic,” Billy reported as they climbed the stairs. “I think Trini’s reply means she can do something too, but she only answered the question I asked.”

“Zack’s joking,” Jason said. “And who knows what Trini’s talking about half the time anyway.”

“Zack tends to use more dramatic language when he jokes,” Billy said. “And Trini is more likely to answer me with a straightforward reply than she is Zack.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Jason agreed, pausing at the top of the stairs to close the door behind them. “That pot pie smells delicious, Mrs. Cranston.”

“Well, thank you, Jason,” Billy’s mom replied. “I’ll tell Kelly you said so. Now, you both make sure you wash up. Billy, you haven’t been working with anything toxic today, have you? Or fighting anywhere radioactive?”

“No, we didn’t go to the mine today,” Billy said. “Just the playing fields. And if there was anything dangerous about that spaceship, it wasn’t anything I could detect with my phone.”

“If it was a one-person ship it would have to be pretty safe, right?” Jason asked. “I mean, as small as you said, there wouldn’t be anywhere the pilot could go to get away from something dangerous.”

“It would have to be shielded inside anyway,” Billy said. “To protect a manual operator from background radiation in space. That doesn’t necessarily mean the operator isn’t careful not to come in contact with something on the outside that we might not have been so cautious about. Or that the operator is sensitive to the same dangers we are.”

“Wash and talk,” Billy’s mom interrupted, pointing at the sink. “I know what you have down in that basement.”

Jason was drying his hands when Billy joined him at the sink, continuing, “We assumed a bilaterally symmetrical shape because the cockpit was so familiar looking, possibly bipedal if it’s a shape that’s easy to disguise on Earth, but even aliens that look strikingly human might have evolved to tolerate significantly different types or levels of radiation.”

“Could they be using it?” Jason asked, leaning against the counter by the sink while he checked his phone. “To power the ship, or something?”

“Or generating it,” Billy said, “yes. If it’s still there the next time I visit I’ll check again, since different operating modes could produce different potential dangers.”

“Kim says no,” Jason told him. “And you’re going back? Can I come? I want to see another spaceship.”

“I want to see more pictures,” Billy’s mom called from the table. She’d already served herself, and she was arranging vegetables around her slice of pot pie. “You keep me informed about this spaceship hunt, you hear?”

“I will,” Billy said. “Of course I will. And you can come with me but you don’t have to wait if you don’t want to; you know where it is. I can plot it on a satellite map if you’re worried about finding the exact location, but I literally walked into it so it’s probably not that hard.”

“You walked into it,” Jason repeated, sitting down at the table across from him. “No one else did. I think you underestimate your skills.”

“Mostly I overestimate other people’s skills,” Billy said. “Is that all Kim said, just no?”

“No, should I,” Jason said. “And then something about magical powers.”

“You all getting new powers?” Billy’s mom wanted to know. She pushed the pot pie toward Jason and passed the vegetables to Billy. “Aren’t the ones you have enough?”

“They were enough to defeat Rita,” Billy said, setting the vegetables in front of Jason too. He didn’t eat broccoli, but he always thought about eating broccoli, in case the benefit ever outweighed the taste. So far it hadn’t, but he liked it being offered. “Given that any other threats we might face are currently unknown, it’s impossible to say what powers might be needed to maintain our winning streak.”

“Billy thinks we might develop psychic powers,” Jason said. He scooped three carrots out of the side of his piece of pot pie and put them back in the dish before passing it to Billy. “So he asked the rest of the team and we’re waiting to see what they say.”

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense,” Billy’s mom said. “Kim said no? What about you? Either of you psychic yet?”

Since Jason had hesitated at least twice now when questioned about his ability to read minds, Billy decided the polite thing was probably to let him handle it. So he scooped out the extra carrots along with a slice of pot pie, and he didn’t say anything. Jason didn’t say anything either, which was probably predictable in retrospect but not very informative.

Finally his mom said, “I’m guessing that’s a yes, then. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. Just don’t think I’m not interested, okay?”

“I can keep people from reading my mind,” Billy blurted out. “We think. I mean, it’s a little hard to tell. We think Zack and Trini can do something too, but I haven’t seen firsthand evidence of either of their powers. Whatever they are.”

“Billy thinks I’m telepathic,” Jason added quickly. 

There was a brief moment that didn’t seem particularly awkward to Billy, but he was no good judge of these things. Jason was right; the pot pie both smelled and tasted delicious. Better with more carrots, of course, but Kelly didn’t take custom orders.

“Well, that sounds handy,” Billy’s mom said. “Probably pretty useful in a fight. And maybe other times?”

“Not so far,” Jason said. “Mostly it just tells me what a disappointment everyone thinks I am.”

“You’re not a disappointment,” Billy’s mom said. “You’re a young man who’s had to make more choices than most. Anyone who’s disappointed is disappointed in the results of those choices, not in you. I think you’ll find if they had a full picture of your results they’d be more impressed than you know.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, looking down at his plate. “Well. I hope you’re right.”

“When I’m not,” she said, “Billy usually is. Do you think Jason’s a disappointment, Billy?”

“Of course not,” Billy said. “The only logical way to judge a disappointment is by comparing expectations to reality. Given that Jason has exceeded every reasonable expectation placed on him, I fail to comprehend how one could judge him to be anything less than admirable.”

His mom smiled at him, and then at Jason. “You may know this already,” she said. “But there aren’t many people who exceed Billy’s expectations.”

“Well, no,” Billy agreed. “If it happened often that would indicate my model for establishing expectations is flawed.”

“There you go,” his mom said. “No one here thinks you’re a disappointment, and Billy can back it up with logic.”

“Yeah,” Jason said again, but this time it looked like he was smiling a little. “He’s good at that. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” his mom said. “Now eat your dinner or check your phone, but don’t keep sitting there wondering which one to do first. You don’t have to tell me what everyone says, but we still have to get you home before seven.”

Billy pulled out his phone and put it on the table at the same time Jason did. He skimmed the conversation between Trini and Zack about mutant comic book characters, saw the place where Kim had joined with,  _ no, am I supposed to?  _ and  _ how many magical powers do we have, anyway? _

Zack had unhelpfully replied,  _ we are the children of the atom, _ which made no sense and was possibly another comic book reference.

Trini had replied,  _ all of them, _ which was equally unhelpful but at least relevant.

“Nobody’s saying anything useful,” Billy reported, though he could see Jason typing out a message on the other side of the table. “Except that Kim denies having any extra powers and Trini and Zack don’t, which as Jason pointed out may be leading but isn’t exactly conclusive.”

Jason’s message popped up on his screen then:  _ Billy thinks we might get new powers to deal with new threats. _

“I didn’t say it’s causative, exactly,” Billy told him. “It might be. Maybe being a Ranger means you get whatever powers you need to defend anything that needs defending. But that’s pretty broad, and where would it stop? Nothing is limitless, except things that are infinite, and if being a Ranger meant being infinite it seems like there wouldn’t be any point to fighting.”

A new message from Jason appeared on his screen:  _ He also says we probably won’t get new powers forever. _

“I think it might be correlative,” Billy said. “That makes the most sense from an evolutionary perspective. Not that we know the Power that comes from the coins is anything other than artificial, so not subject to natural selection, let alone natural selection based on an Earth-like environment, but in terms of being created for a particular purpose it seems like the powers we have are pretty specific. If there are more dangers than Rita out there, and there must be since she used to be one of us, it’s possible that it will take more than two weeks to prepare us for everything we’ll face.”

The next message from Jason said,  _ And some other stuff that sounds sort of ominous. _

“Excuse me,” Billy’s mom said. “Did you just say Rita used to be one of you?”

“Oh, did I not mention that?” Billy decided someone needed to clarify Jason’s vague summary before he had to account for it, so he typed,  _ It’s not ominous so much as it is practical. _

He sent it, about to pause long enough to continue the explanation to his mom out loud, when Jason said, “Zordon told us that Rita used to be one of his Rangers. We don’t actually know that’s true, or what happened if it is, but she does have a green glowy thing that looks kind of like our coins.”

Billy took this opportunity to finish his summary of Jason’s summary to the group. _ The Power probably doesn’t exist to fight itself, and whatever it’s meant to do might need more than 14 days to prepare the people who wield it. The physical and mental changes we’ve been experiencing might not be over yet. That’s all I said. _

“And what are the chances that any of you turn into an evil like that?” Billy’s mom was asking. “If you don’t know how it happened, is it common? What happened to the rest of Zordon’s Rangers?”

“We don’t know,” Jason admitted. “Zordon hasn’t been really forthcoming with information.”

_ omg do you have a private chat, _ Kim replied.  _ I thought only girls did that. _

_ Rude, _ Trini agreed instantly.  _ Share with the class. _

“He asked us to defend the Zeo Crystal,” Billy pointed out. “And with it, all life on Earth. That makes him sound like one of the good guys to me.”

“Just because he doesn't want everyone to die doesn't mean he cares about us, specifically,” Jason said. “He lost his whole team a million years ago. Not a great record.”

_ Did you just ask someone to share?  _ Zack wanted to know.  _ Someone asks you a question and you type one letter! _

_ &, _ Trini replied. 

Billy had to admire her brevity, but he found it difficult to process their misconception and simultaneously agree and disagree with Jason. “It wasn't a million,” he said aloud. “It was 65 million, which happens to coincide with the last extinction-level event on Earth.”

_ We don't have a private chat,  _ he added on his phone.  _ He's sitting across from me at the table. _

“Are you saying yesterday could have wiped out all life on Earth?” Billy’s mom demanded.

Oops, he thought. He hadn't meant to alarm her with that at the time, but he should have known it would come up eventually. “Well, we don't actually know the significance of the Zeo Crystal or the magnitude of its effect,” he began.

“Wait, you think almost losing the crystal millions of years ago is what wiped out the dinosaurs?” Jason asked.

“No,” Billy said. “I think defending the crystal is what wiped out the dinosaurs.”

_ Are you having dinner?  _ Trini asked.

_ Wait, you're dating?  _ Zack asked. Then, immediately,  _ I thought you didn't date! _

The next message was also Zack, even including another exclamation point.  _ I feel so betrayed! _

Billy had no idea what Zack meant by that, and he couldn't ask Jason because Jason was saying, “Why wouldn’t Zordon tell us that? If fighting almost destroyed what they were fighting for, isn’t that important for us to know? How can we keep Earth safe if trying to protect it could destroy it?”

Billy assumed this was more important than the conversation about them having dinner, so he said, “Zordon has demonstrated an unwillingness to talk about past failures. I’d guess killing off large numbers of the planet’s primary inhabitants at the time falls into the category of things he doesn’t want to discuss.”

“I think it falls into the category of things we should know about,” Jason said.

“I have to agree there,” Billy’s mom said. “Learning from mistakes is what keeps us from repeating them, you know. And if these powers of yours are capable of that much destruction, I think you should get some kind of warning.”

“Well, to be fair,” Billy said, “this is just speculation on my part. It’s possible that Zordon’s death happened independent of his team’s demise and only coincidentally occurred during the extinction of the most powerful animals on Earth. He and Alpha might have fought Rita to a standstill sometime earlier and then slept as sentries all these intervening years, until she returned, or the crystal was threatened, or we stumbled on the ship. Whatever the trigger was.”

“Yeah, he hasn’t told us that either, has he,” Jason said. “I’m a little worried that he’s using us to finish what he started. Is that ridiculous?”

“What, that he wants us to protect the crystal and with it all life on Earth?” Billy asked. “No, I think that's perfectly reasonable, although I’m not sure the ends justify the means.”

“No,” Jason echoed. “That he wants to destroy Rita at all costs.”

Billy considered that. If Zordon had ended the era of dinosaurs in his effort to stop a teammate gone rogue, there was no reason to think that millions of years stored as data inside a spaceship would change his perspective. In fact, data seemed less vulnerable to outside influence than the typical human consciousness, and was likely to resist change by the nature of its existence.

“I don’t think that’s ridiculous,” Billy said at last. “At least, not that you think that.”

“That’s not what I was hoping you would say,” Jason told him.

“But didn’t you kill her?” Billy’s mom wanted to know. “Not that I condone killing as a solution to problems, you understand. But she's gone at least. Isn't she?”

“I think we launched her into space,” Jason said. “I don’t know how someone could survive that, but I don’t know how she survived millions of years at the bottom of the ocean, either. And I guess I’m worried it doesn’t matter whether or not she’s really dead, as much as it matters whether Zordon thinks she’s dead.”

Billy used the moment to assess the phone conversation, where Trini had asked Zack,  _ Why do you feel betrayed? _ _ I thought you wanted to date Kim. _

Zack’s reply said,  _ Kim said she and Jason aren't dating team members. And Billy said he doesn't date. _

_ billy said he isn't good at dating,  _ Kim had written.  _ not that he doesn't. _

Billy wasn't sure exactly how they'd gotten from Jason knowing what he thought about something to him and Jason dating.  _ It's just dinner at my house with my mom,  _ he typed.

_ aw sweet, _ Trini replied immediately.

_ Meeting the parent?  _ Zack said.  _ Didn't know things were so serious. _

“Billy?” his mom asked. “Do you think this Rita is still a threat?”

“Oh, I don't know,” he said. “Probably. Can we be on a date if we don't know it and a parent is present?”

“What?” Jason asked.

“Now that you've told them what I'm saying the rest of the team thinks we’re dating,” Billy said. “At least, I think that's why. Unless they're joking. It's hard for me to tell.”

Jason picked up his phone and swiped his thumb over the screen. “Huh,” he said after a moment.

“Are you dating?” Billy’s mom asked. “Because I do like to have a picture of Billy with all of his dates. It's a mom thing."

“Just to clarify, it’s an embarrassing mom thing, and it started in kindergarten so ‘date’ didn’t always mean romantic partner,” Billy said. “Also, I don’t think we’re dating.”

“I think one of us has to ask the other out for it to be a date,” Jason said.

“Right,” Billy agreed. “That makes sense. And we didn’t, I mean neither of us did, so it’s clearly not. A date.”

“Well, I’m still going to take your picture,” his mom declared. She already had her phone in one hand while she waved at them with the other. “Scoot around the corner so you’re sitting next to each other.”

“Mom,” Billy protested. “We’ve already established this isn’t a date, so I don’t see any need for documentation.”

“It’s just a picture,” his mom said. “I promise not to frame it and put it on the mantle.”

“That would be difficult considering we don’t have a mantle,” Billy said, just as his phone indicated another message from Jason. 

When he looked down all it said was,  _ Hi.  _ It was strange, but even stranger was that it didn’t show up with the rest of the team messages, which were now about whether telling parents about powers or relationships was more challenging. Jason had sent his text outside of the group discussion.

Jason shrugged when Billy looked at him, putting his phone back in his pocket as he came around the table. “If they already think we have a private chat, we might as well actually have one, right?”

It was odd how much repeating the word “right” seemed like the appropriate conversational response. “No,” Billy said instead. “Because ‘might as well’ indicates there’s no difference, and there is. It’s much less efficient to have parts of the group talking to each other without everyone seeing, necessitating the retelling of key insights or arguments later.”

Jason wore a faint smile when he leaned on the table beside him. “You don’t have to use it, Billy.”

“Okay,” Billy said.

Just as he was about to ask why Jason was standing next to him, his mom said, “Got it!” She turned her phone around to show them the picture. “You both look very nice. Thank you, Jason.”

“Sure thing,” Jason said, returning to his own seat. “Thanks for dinner, Mrs. Cranston.”

“Yes, thank you,” Billy said, staring at his own phone. It currently showed Trini’s opinion that he had it best: because his mother had been introduced to both, and she didn’t seem to be freaking out over it.

“You’re both very welcome,” his mom said.


End file.
